Fascinations

I used to think that there were a few things that Joshua was just terribly, terribly fascinated with. But I think I am wrong. Joshua is not fascinated with "things", Joshua is just fascinated. Period.

Fascinated with life.

Here is a list of a few current fascinations (which grows daily):

1. Fans. Joshua loves fans. We don't have any ceiling fans at our house, but over the past week, he has been in a few different houses with ceiling fans in almost every room. When he spots one, it is very clear that he wants you to turn it on. The second it turns on, he gets very excited and points and exclaims "ooo! oooo! ooo!!" If we leave the fan on and he walks out of the room, you can guarantee that within 30 seconds he will come back, just to make sure the fan is still on.

2. From Day 1 Joshua has loved lights. The first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning is point up to the light on his ceiling and grunt. I wish I could blog this sound. It's not like a deep guttural grunt, but just a monotone, straight-faced "uhh". And his pointing is not with one finger, but it is his whole hand reaching up in the air. My dad calls it his "HARK" arm.
Incidentally, I have a rather funny story about this fascination that happened just a few days ago. We have an IKEA moon night light that is supposed to be mounted on his wall, but has just been sitting atop his dresser, because his parents have yet to mount it. We had to rearrange Joshua's room the other day to make his 'basketball court' and the night light got placed on top of the filing cabinet, which happens to be right next to the crib. After he had gone to sleep that night, I went in to check on him and found that he was snuggling with the moon! He had taken it off the filing cabinet and was lying on his back with both arms hugging the moon, fast asleep!

3. Running water. I don't think it is just the running water itself that fascinates him, but putting his hands IN the running water. It can just be dripping even, it doesn't really matter. Joshua would sit in the bathtub for hours if I let him. Not playing with toys, but taking his dads washrag and dipping it in the water and lifting it out, letting the water drip from the rag onto his hand. Over and over and over and over...

Oh, and just FYI, if you want to check the temperature of the bathtub water as it fills the tub and put YOUR hands under the running water, you better watch out...Joshua doesn't like ANYONE elses hands in his running water!

4. For the last few weeks, every time Joshua hears music, he starts conducting it. You can imagine I am very proud and I think he is a musical genius, but I might be a little biased...
It doesn't matter if he's in the middle of eating or playing with a toy, the music starts and he is riveted in the moment. His arm goes up and he is entranced. We've noticed that his movements change with the type of music he is conducting too. Today we had Coldplay's Viva La Vida playing and he was just rocking out like I've never seen him before! But when the MoTab is singing, it's a much gentler conducting.
I know you probably accuse me of teaching him this, but honestly, he started it all on his own. I think I should make YouTube video of it, it's actually pretty impressive.

5. One of the newest fascinations is his new car he got for Christmas. There is a little button on it, that when pushed, makes the car move by itself. It will go a couple of feet, stop, make some other noises, then move a couple of more feet. It doesn't matter how many times in a row we push the button, EVERY single time it moves by itself, Joshua's eyes widen as big as they can, he looks at us, points to the car and says "OOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" It's like he is saying "Mom, Dad! Look at what that car just did! Can you believe it?!" At first we thought he was afraid of it, but after it happened so many times, we just realized it was another one of his fascinations. It's like he forgets that the car did the same thing 5 seconds ago and it is a completely new and exciting experience to him.

Why can't we be like that? Every time the snow falls, why don't we sit outside and notice how quiet the world is? Why do I take for granted kissing my husband? Or rocking my son? I know I could be a lot more fascinated with life. Good thing New Years is coming. I think that will be one of my resolutions.